Hello readers, it's Spitfire! And it's time for the rewrite! (Ten points to whoever gets the (sorta) reference) I'm gonna be completely re-writing Indestructible (it will be deleted five days after this chapter goes up), since I'm not happy at all with its current state. So, there are a couple changes to go over first: I've renamed her Rebecca "Dash" Myers (Five points if you get the name reference), Roach is no longer 'the new kid' Dash is, Archer and Toad will also be a feature couple (later on in the story), and I'm going to throw in my writing buddy's favorite depressed sad-sack of an OC: Jason "Jay" Miller and make it a co-written story with her. So let's get on with it, shall we!?
*Three points to whoever knows what game they're playing
Thanks for Reading, Fly High Aim Higher
~Spitfire (and Kat!) out
(PS from Kat: I'm Jay's mun! ^_^ Find me and Jay on Tumblr with the url jayofthe141 J )
Everyone usually relaxed after ops. Even Archer and Toad took a break from the range to relax in the rec room or sleep in. As it was, Roach and Chemo were playing video games and Ghost, MacTavish, and Archer, the three officers of the team, sat at the table, talking and playing a simple card game with few rules.
Archer mentioned seeing a couple new names crossing his desk earlier when he'd been doing paperwork and MacTavish nodded, "They'll be comin' in in the morning," he confirmed, placing a card in the middle, "King of Hearts."
"Bullshit," Ghost called him out and flipped the card to find that MacTavish was, indeed, lying, "Who are they?" he questioned as MacTavish grumbled and took the pile. *
"Rebecca Myers and Jason Miller," Archer answered, "Call-signs Dash and Jay respectively. Ace of Diamonds," he placed the card face down on the middle of the now empty table, nobody dared to try their luck at calling Archer on his bluff, but he'd actually laid down a Queen of Spades.
MacTavish nodded, "Myers is a close-quarters fighter, and Miller is a medic. Not sure what they did to catch Shepherd's eye, but that's not really my business until they get here."
Ghost hummed his approval, "We're short-handed on medics. Glad Shepherd found another," he laid down a card, "One of Clubs."
"Archer," Toad called from his place at the counter where he was typing away at his computer, "Captain," he added as an afterthought.
Both men sighed and set their hands face down on the table before standing to go see what it was Toad wanted.
"I've got a solid lead on the ACS module," he looked up at the TV where Roach and Chemo were in the middle of a racing game and grinned, typing in a few commands, and suddenly their game was replaced by a map.
There were shouts of protest and then an argument over who had been winning. The three men at the counter laughed at them for a moment before turning their attention to the screen.
"There," Toad said, as he highlighted the location on his laptop, "The Tian Shan Mountains, on the border between Kyrgyzstan and China. Intel says the Russians built an airbase there a while ago and it's been seeing a lot more activity than usual since the ACS was stolen."
"Good work, Toad," Archer commented, gripping the younger sniper's shoulder.
"Roach, get ready, you and I have places to be tomorrow afternoon," MacTavish spoke with a smirk.
"But what about the FNGs, sir?" Ghost questioned.
MacTavish grinned, "You and Archer can handle them."
Ghost rolled his eyes and Archer chuckled and checked his watch, "Alright, it's getting late, I'm gonna turn in."
Toad relinquished control of the TV to allow Roach and Chemo to keep playing and shut his computer down. The snipers roomed together and Archer was a very light sleeper who would be grouchy if Toad woke him up by coming in after he'd fallen asleep, so he left to join Archer in their room, he'd probably just read or something until he was tired.
Ghost put the remnants of Archer's hand, only one card, into the pile on the table then looked at MacTavish expectantly.
He sighed and sat down, picking up his hand again, "Where were we?"
"You got two."
MacTavish grunted his reply and set down his card, "Two of Diamonds."
"Bullshit."
MacTavish grinned as Ghost flipped over the card that was, in fact, a Two of Diamonds. He grumbled and took the small collection of cards.
The next morning, Archer and Ghost were found waiting at the front gate for the new arrivals while MacTavish and Roach packed for their op.
Archer checked his watch when the bus pulled up, "Right on time," he looked over at Ghost, "How do you want to play this? Your usual 'intimidate the shit out of the newbies' routine, or actually try to welcome them this time?"
Ghost grunted with a smirk as he pulled his mask down over his face.
Archer sighed as Ghost walked up to the bus to greet the recruits, "Intimidate the newbies it is," he muttered to himself, hurrying up to join them before Ghost ran them off.
"-First Lieutenant Riley, you can call me Ghost or 'sir'," Archer caught Ghost saying as he approached, "And this," he gestured to Archer, "is-"
"Second Lieutenant Richards," Archer cut him off, "call me Archer, welcome to the one-four-one."
"Master Sergeant Rebecca Myers," the woman introduced herself first, sticking her hand out to shake Archer's hand, Ghost hadn't offered, "Call-sign Dash."
Her hair was cut short, auburn in color, and in a bun, but a few pieces that were too short to fit into it were hanging down around her face, framing it nicely. She looked extremely young, in her lower to mid-twenties maybe. Her accent, Archer thought, sounded like she was from one of the more rural areas of Texas.
"Corporal Jason Miller," he was much quieter than Myers had been, "Everyone calls me Jay…" he shook Archer's hand as well, though the sniper thought it was probably so that he didn't come off as rude or disrespectful.
Jay's hair was oddly both brown and blonde and he had tired eyes, he probably looked older than he was.
"Alright, well you both are probably tired from the trip," Archer said politely, "so we'll make this quick. The Captain is getting ready for an op so you'll meet him later and do the full tour then, for now we're just gonna show you the basics."
The recruits nodded and picked up their bags. Jay carried two, Archer noted, one with a medic's symbol, the other with his name stitched into a patch that he'd sewn on, and Dash only had one. Archer concluded that the bag with the symbol was Jay's med-kit. It was a messenger style bag that hung across his body and hung just at his waist.
The two officers turned away to lead them into and around the base. They were shown to the mess hall, the training field, the infirmary, the gym, and the barracks, where Archer and Ghost stopped to give them both schedules and their room assignments. Dash, being the only woman aside from a few nurses that lived on base, would be rooming with one of said nurses, and Jay was roomed with Prophet, who was apparently the team's psychologist. Jay fought to keep the disappointment out of his face, he was not a fan of psychologists, he made every effort to avoid them, and now he was roomed with one.
Finally, they were shown to the rec room to meet the rest of the team, minus the two that had only just left by helicopter.
Introductions were brief and uneventful and mostly just consisted of people saying their name and their specialization then going back to what they were doing.
"Toad," one copper haired man said from his laptop, raising his hand, "I'm Archer's spotter, we make up Sniper Team One," he gestured to his computer, "I also hack and track."
Archer nodded proudly.
"Meat, close-quarters."
"Royce, linguistics."
"Chemo, basic field medicine."
"Ozone, hacking and infiltration."
"Scarecrow, also infiltration."
"Rook, mechanics."
"Driver, um… duh?"
"Robot, mechanics."
"Rocket, demolitions and EOD."
"Worm," he shrugged, "tracking."
"Zach, pilot."
Dash grinned, "That's a lot of people," she laughed, "I'm Rebecca Myers, call me Dash or Maya."
"Jay," he introduced himself simply, he was tired, and he just wanted to go to his bunk and nap right now.
He picked up his bags and left the room to do just that.
Jay was almost to his room when Archer caught up to him, "Something wrong, Corporal? You don't seem to be doing to good."
"I'm alright, sir," Jay answered, "Just tired, it's the pain meds," he shrugged, it was half a lie, he just wasn't very social to begin with, "just got out of the hospital."
"Really? What happened to ya?"
Jay sighed slightly, he wasn't in the mood for this, "Long story short, I pushed a guy out of the way of a stray bullet and caught it in the lung," he neglected to mention that this 'guy' had been General Shepherd himself.
Archer nodded slowly, "Well, I should let you get some rest then… I'll see you later."
Jay nodded his thanks and turned to go find his room. He checked the room number twice before opening the door. This 'Prophet' guy hadn't introduced himself in the rec room and Jay had hoped he'd be away at the office or something, but instead Jay found him lying on the bottom bunk reading. Jay rolled his eyes and entered the room.
Prophet sat up, "Hey, you must be that new kid, uh, Jay? Was it?"
"Yeah," Jay answered simply and set his bag down by the ladder up to the top bunk.
He stretched his back and winced as his injury pulled. Jay checked his watch and sighed, it was time for more pain medication and to change the bandage. He went over and sat down in the chair at the empty desk and set his kit on top of it.
He felt Prophet watching him as he took his shirt off, "Don't you have more productive things to be doing?" he questioned.
"Ah, not really, no," Prophet shrugged, "What's with the attitude?"
Jay peeled the old bandage off and disposed of it, "I'm tired," he got out a clean gauze pad and medical tape, the bandage was really just to keep the stitches from rubbing against his clothes and irritating the wound.
"Liar," Prophet accused as Jay worked.
"Not lying."
"Half a lie is still a lie."
Jay sent him a glare as he took his medication. He sat back for a moment, waiting for it kick in. He slipped his boots off after a couple minutes and stood to climb up to what would be his bunk.
Prophet caught his shoulder before he could climb up, "You're hiding something, and whatever it is, it's not healthy. I'll be here when you decide to get you head out of your ass and talk to someone."
Jay scowled at him, "I've been dealing with it for five years, pretty sure I don't need your 'help'," he pushed Prophet's hand off his shoulder and climbed up.
He laid down on his back and was asleep within seconds. Prophet stared after him for a moment before sighing and going back to his book, this kid needed help whether he knew it or not.
In the rec room, Dash was getting to know everybody, "So… what do you guys do when you're not on an op?" she questioned curiously.
"Toad helps coordinate all of the ongoing ops," Archer answered for his spotter who gave a small and short wave in affirmation, "but he doesn't like to be alone so he does it from here instead of the command room."
Archer ruffled Toad's hair, earning a glare that said 'I don't like that, but I'm too busy to care, don't do it again'. Archer chuckled at that and walked away from him to grab a couple beers from the fridge. He set one down next to Toad and kept the other for himself.
"How many ops is he coordinating?"
"Right now, only two," Toad answered, taking a small break to take a drink from his beer, "Can't tell the newbies about them 'till they're over though."
Dash nodded, "Understandable. What about the rest of you?"
"Pretty much what you see us doing," Royce shrugged, "We just got back from an op yesterday; otherwise some of us might be in the gym or whatever."
"What were y'all doing yesterday?" Dash asked.
"Leveling a building," Rocket grinned.
Dash chuckled at him, "Well, it was a long ride and I'm tired, so I think I'm gonna go hit the hay," she said simply, waving as she left.
Jay jumped awake and looked over at Prophet, who had woken him up, "Ugh… What?"
Prophet chuckled, "A, you were having a nightmare. B, Doc wants to see you in the infirmary."
He sat up and cracked his neck, "Alright… How long was I out?" Jay ignored the comment about his nightmare.
Prophet checked his watch, "About an hour and a half," he answered as Jay climbed down and put his boots on.
Jay yawned and stretched his back, it popped in several places and he sighed contently. He packed up his kit, which he'd apparently forgotten to do earlier when he just wanted to take a nap, and slung it over his shoulder. Prophet left before Jay, heading to his own office, there was something about this kid he needed to know that he obviously wasn't going to be told about.
"Hey, you must be Rebecca Myers!" the nurse greeted her with a wide grin.
She was pale, like she didn't get out much, and had died her hair a light floral pink… Dash thought it was odd, but it complemented her face and completion well, "That I am," Dash smiled back and shook the hand offered to her, "but you can call me Maya or Dash."
The nurse nodded, "Everybody calls me Redheart**," she replied, "Nobody'll tell me why though…" she commented in confusion then shrugged, "I'm the head nurse down at the infirmary. So, Maya, what's your story? Where you from? What do you do?"
"I'm from Texas," she answered, "And I fight close quarters. All I need's me, my fists, and my SPAS."
The nurse gave a sly smile, "Then I expect to see you in the infirmary a lot," she laughed, "our close-quarters specialists are known for their bad luck and getting hurt."
Dash laughed with her and gestured to herself with her thumb, "Well I'll be different. I always win, you won't be seein' a lot a me in the office."
Redheart nodded, "Let's hope not," she took Dash's hand, "Now c'mon! I've got a stash of strawberries and whip cream, and you have a home to tell me all about," she grinned and dragged her further into the room.
** Five points to whoever gets this reference
Hey, okay, I know this wasn't the update you all were waiting and hoping for and wanting, but this has waited long enough. I know Jay kind of stole the show here, but that's because he's a lot more developed than Dash is and he's easier to write. (Kat: Imma kill her for rooming my angsty baby with a shrink.) No you won't, calm down. Anyway! Anyone to get thirteen points from the references in the chapter will get a 500 word preview of the next chapter of Stoic! (Unless you don't want the preview, that's cool too) Well, that's all for now, please let us know what you think so that we can get the next chapter pumped out soon!
Thanks for Reading, Fly High Aim Higher
~Spitfire (and Kat!) out